A little progress

 I had multiple things come up during prime time for watering so didn't get a chance to do that today and the seeds I'm sure were probably under a dry blanket of soil. Will probably have to go get some more lettuce seeds for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But first, flowers. This is in front of Dolores' apartment, I had to take a picture of that one hibiscus throwing a color mutation. I hope that continues for the next set of flowers because I will ask for a cutting to propagate it. Gorgeous color without that but just stunning.

 

The fall color continues. This is a bad picture because the sun is off to the left upper corner and the camera had to compensate by making it darker. The hibiscus kind of is echoing the fall colors of the trees.

These are my cauliflower seedlings, the lettuce are behind them and not doing as well. One actually fell over and when I tried to move it, there was no roots left. Oh well, four or five Romaine will be fine, wish I had a proper greenhouse type shelf that didn't turn into an oven in the afternoon. 

 

And then there's the resident gopher. I forgot my phone earlier when I was out with Rocky but that hole in the corner totally had a gopher poking their head out and then in again for a good five minutes or more. Finally Rocky noticed but wasn't fast enough, he is not on his game today because he totally missed out on two lizards too. So that is an industrious gopher for sure and hope they stay in that area of the lawn. 

A lot smaller than I thought it would be but maybe it's one of the babies from the spring. Oh well, Rocky hadn't encountered one before and only saw movement in and out of the hole so he was just curious. Hope that they have another encounter and I'd let him keep it but not bring it home.

 

Short note today, hoping to water tomorrow at some point.  

 

Proof about eggshells and other rambling

 In the garden group some people tout putting eggshells in the garden for calcium, but much like ant other 'folk remedies' not all the information is passed on. But first, the weather.

Today is clear and cool, though warmer outside than inside the apartment in a good way. It's really nippy in the apartment and by the time I realized how warm it was outside, it's now late afternoon and cooling down. Had to actually wear a light jacket sitting at my desk but was outside earlier in just a t shirt and jeans. 

Hard to tell but I watered that bed. The onions are still there and will start catching up and growing soon enough. Still waiting for the potato pieces to dry so I can put them out there. Also not visible is a pair of seedlings coming up on the far side, not sure what they are, don't remember throwing seeds out there recently so likely just drifted weed seeds. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The south bed with the cilantro and mixed weeds. I saw someone who took a chance and interplanted cilantro and parsley. I think they planted them in their own groups and not interplanted scattering because that's a recipe for disaster seasoning. The other picture is for the comment about eggshells.

All those white bits in the bed, that's from the sifted compost. Eggshells that are about 1/4" big so they slipped through the mesh of the basket. I have not put eggshells in the compost for at least a year or two. They do not break down quickly at all and therefore do not release their calcium into the soil either. The proper way is to dry them in the oven then grind them into a powder to distribute into your compost. Like any other elements of compost, the smaller the pieces the faster they break down. 

I used the misting option on the nozzle for those so the seeds didn't get disturbed being carrots and lettuce. Really need to go find some leaf lettuce seeds again.

 

It's possible that when the cilantro gets bigger I can dig them up and transplant them so I can run the shovel or cultivator in that south bed to turn under those weeds. That bed gets no sun at all in the winter, not during midday at least and if there is any sun it is very early in the morning and only on the front edge of the bed. The pictures were all taken a little before noon.

 

So maybe will plant those potato pieces tomorrow or Friday (Thursday is Thanksgiving) and hope for the best.  

Still cold and damp but good

 Actually took advantage of a break in the weather and direct sowed some seeds. Skies are still cloudy-ish and not warm at all. 

Blogger being stupid with photos again.

The liquid amber trees are all changing except that one. I mentioned previously about how three in a line were all at different stages. Not sure whether it's an original age when planted thing or what but it sure is fun to look at. Mostly cloudy today with a light sprinkle overnight so the last few days have been mostly damp and cold. Bring it on!

    

The clouds are beautiful when there's gaps and the sun shines through on the distant hill. This is what Fall weather should be like, not 80 or 90. Yes, that happened a few years ago and a different year it rained like it did last week. So yeah, vagaries of weather in California.

I brought down the last of the Chantenay carrots and mixed lettuces which I did my best to plant behind the onions in the west bed. The lettuces all came out mostly at the far end so had to kind of sweep them along a line. 

There was a perfectly good little wire wastebasket on the table when I went down and snapped it up because it's useful in the garden. The holes are about ¼ inch so not good at fine sifting but works just the same. I dumped some of the compost into it and then shook it all over the west bed where I had planted the seeds. Perfectly fine cover with a few larger bits of eggshell unfortunately but still good. Yay for new tool!

Never underestimate nature and one person's trash is another's new garden. Apparently one of the two other gardeners just dumped a good clump of green onions in the compost and they started to sprout. Sooooo, not on my watch. Drilled and dug holes and plopped them all down, a good two dozen, maybe dozen and a half. Still plenty of room for the potatoes. The last little one that I had missed is actually a purple so I cut that up, put the pieces in a safe place to dry and will try and get those in the ground in the next week.

And it seems that the bucket lid wasn't exactly water tight because there's at least an inch of water in the bottom of that bucket. Oh well, nothing tragic really and will dump it out another day.

Will see how long it takes for the seeds to sprout, the cilantro is coming along in the south bed along with a multitude of small weed seedlings. I pulled a few fingerfuls and will keep doing that mostly around the cilantro plants. If it weren't for the cilantro I'd spray the whole bed with vinegar, but I just might rig up a shield and still do that. 

So that's all for the garden today. Oh the seeds in the little pellets are going very slowly. The cauliflowers are very leggy unfortunately due to lack of bright light and the romaine are just poking along. I need a little mini greenhouse with a light...... and just realized I have something that might work. A flea trap I bought! It's small, maybe six inches square but it has a single lightbulb in the center.... hmmmmmm.

Will see if that works or not. 

 

    

First rainstorm of the season.

 They said it would rain really hard all up and down the coast and it sure as heck did. Started Friday night and hit full blast on Saturday when I planned on driving up to a friend that lives near Anaheim. It was torrential rain non stop until we got an hour out and I decided to turn back. Not making that mistake again and thankful I had new tires. Our area got between an inch and two inches in different places.

 Basically cloudy for two days after the storm as it should be, top two are from Saturday and the bottom is from yesterday. It is now patchy high wispy clouds but still very cool and definitely sweater weather.

Garden definitely benefited from the rain. I planted out more onion cuttings but seeds are being very slow in the window due to it being cold and not as sunny. That south bed has more weeds than cilantro so will just let everything grow other than the dandelion/prickly lettuce that were coming up. those will overpower everything. 

The romaine are starting to sprout and the cauliflower is continuing to grow. Haven't had a chance to get to the garden center or the library to get anymore seeds. Before it rained I dumped the last of the fertilizer in all three beds so everything should have plenty of nourishment for a while. 

So,  you remember the potato cuttings? I didn't have anywhere safe and out of the way to put the tray after cutting them up so I put them in the oven.  Yep. You guessed it, forgot they were in there when I preheated the oven for dinner the next day. Will plant them anyway and maybe a few will survive. I did miss one red potato so that one is still safe to use at least. I don't have that much room for all of those anyway.  At least they're dried. 😆

And now, back to hot flash, that is all

 It is currently 84 but topped out at about 88 today. We haven't turned on the ac because we closed up early and with the sun at a lower angle it isn't hitting the front door straight on. So.... welcome to So Cal Fall.

The tree is gradually changing, top to bottom with other trees barely showing color. Such is the way of that species. I've seen three of them all in a row and they never turned color at the same time.

I almost fried the seedlings. Forgot how hot it was getting today and when I remembered they were wilted. Put them next to the sink and they will recover. This photo is from when I shifted the new lettuce seed pods to the same container. What is really funny is that one on the far right had been chewed by cat, down to the soil, it's still trying to grow. 

In this picture the lower left one is the chewed plant but I planted some romaine seeds in it anyway. I used a toothpick to push the seeds into the soil so they stayed moist. 

I picked more of the single pink rose hips this morning, looked up how they needed to be treated. Supposed to put them in the fridge for like six weeks (um not here, we don't get cold for that long) then you're supposed to soak them, then pry the seeds out and clean them off then clean them with bleach and water....  So, I just cut one open with my handy dandy tiny pocket knife and four perfect seeds were inside. I understand about why they need to be soaked and then bleached, imitating if an animal ate it and pooped it out. But honestly, I have enough hips I can try different methods and see what works. It's a fun experiment. That is the smallest of the three I picked just in case. Good amount of fruit around the four seeds but have no idea if that's good or not. Will let the other two hips just hang out and there's still five or six in another container in the front room. 

That's all for today. Onions are still growing, I went out yesterday evening and saw Dolores there. It was getting kind of dark so I only checked soil to make sure nothing had dug in them. Told her I had some lettuce and cauliflower started (who knew cauliflower was so easy to grow?). Wanted to get out and water today but oh well, too warm, will try again tomorrow.

 

Weather and watering

 The weather is very pleasant now. With the time change the clock says we're waking up around 6:30 but it's our usual 7:30. It has been extremely foggy and cold in the mornings until around 11, that makes for very mild temperatures and a lowering of electric bill not running the AC 24/7. 

Fog is so low the buildings are almost enveloped. Off to the left is the small hill about five blocks away and totally shrouded. There are supposed to be more hills behind that palm tree in the distance so yeah, definitely Fall weather.                                                                                                                                                                       

 

And right on schedule, Bird of Paradise are blooming with bees taking advantage of the nectar.  The liquidambar tree is changing colors more every day as well.

 

 

This picture was taken around 11 am and the foggy one was about 8:30. Love the streaky clouds that burned up rather quickly an hour or so later.

Definitely a LOT of cilantro coming up in the south bed. I know I tossed a good handful of seeds in there in late spring so good to see they're coming up and growing best they can in mostly shade. I don't know what people are doing when they say they have no luck with growing it. Then I ask when were they planting and inevitably they say late spring or early summer. Yup, there's your problem, toss the seeds in the soil mid to late summer and as late as Fall, early spring and boom, Cilantro.

 

Watering was done...ugh. It's such a chore pulling out the hose, hooking it up and then draining it and putting it back in but that's what I have to do. I completely flooded the west bed for the onions and possible cilantro in there. The oregano needed a good soaking as well. Going to plant out some more onion cuttings and maybe some garlic cloves as well. After I put them in the fridge for a while as I learned. You can also see the plethora of fall leaves which I will not remove from that bed as it's okay for composting.

 

Thoroughly watered the raised bed again and tried to move some of the soil around but still higher on the right than the left and back to front. Just means the water will drain to that side, which may or may not be good, so when I get more soil I'll try and level it out.  That reminds me I  need to start some romaine and mixed lettuce seeds as well. Cut up the potatoes into pieces and get them dried out and ready to plant. And onion seeds started.

Things to do for sure! 

 

 

 

Some things happening and not

 The weather has cooled again, more early morning fog and marine layer which lingers long enough to keep things a pleasant temperature during the day. 

Wonderful golden light on the tree in late afternoon. That's one of the sycamores and the leaves mostly turn brown and maybe a bit of yellow but the lighting made it glow.

And the half moon on Halloween, I had to zoom really close to like 10x to get it to show up of course but it was nice to actually see it.

Now then, as for the garden happenings, seedlings coming up and a leezard sighting!

The photo on the left is from day before yesterday and today a third seedling has popped up in the same group plus another one so four total cauliflower coming up. Seems leaving them in the hot oven like window one day so they almost dried out didn't do any harm.

 I decided to try and dig the area where I wanted to put the crate and no sooner did I use my trowel (thankfully) along the long side toward the middle, this little guy came skittering out. The soil was warm so I suspect it was just using it to sleep for the night. Gorgeous turquoise markings on the back. I tried to pick it up but of course, it was completely aware of what was going on and zipped off to leap under the jade bush. A common male Coast Range Fence Lizard (according to google image) but have never seen one with the blue spots on the back. 

Anyway, turns out there's not enough depth for putting the crate in the bed. I dug down as far as I could and hit the logs. Another inch of soil was not going to make any difference so I filled in the hole again and figure I'll just put it on top or maybe where it has been and fill it with soil to plant the potatoes. I had intentions of watering when I went out there at the time then instead, picked up my trowel and shovel. 

And finally, the butchering happened. I heard the trimmer running the other day and knew it would be chopped down. Really need to talk to the manager about letting that at least just grow into a bush as it would help keep the building a little cooler.

So now that the cauliflower have come up I need to really get going on the potatoes. I have four or five spuds in different colors and only room for three PIECES in that crate. Would rather grow them in a container as it's easier to harvest and not lose any to crop up suddenly a few months later. Oh I also figured out that a good portion of all the root masses toward the bottom of the raised bed are from the logs I put down there. I unearthed a small log about the length of my forearm and chucked it under the jade bush. Also pulled a pencil thick root as much as I could but had to cut it with my little paring knife because it wasn't budging. Hazards of using natural methods for filling the bottom of a bed, might get out next week and buy that second bag of soil so I can top off the bed.

Hope to water tomorrow and hope that lizard didn't decide to return to the raised bed and make it his home.